Brief version of my medical history:
I had some hematological abnormalities as a child (low WBC, low platelets, anemia). Bone marrow was performed, results were normal. This was ignored for the rest of my childhood and early adulthood although it continued to persist.
At five years old, I got migraines every day during a stressful period. I had an MRI performed and something else which came back normal. Eventually the headaches stopped. Also had asthma, allergies, and undiagnosed ADD, which was not picked up because I was intelligent enough to do well in school despite it.
In my later teens I began to notice that my libido was dropping, and this became really pronounced in my early twenties. I also began to develop digestive problems in my early 20's, and was depressed at various times.
In my mid 20's I was now tired and had "brain fog" all the time in addition to the other problems. I thought I was deficient in testosterone, but this came back normal. Then I went to see an endocrinologist because I still suspected there was something wrong hormonally. In fact, there turned out to be many abnormalities: low DHEA, high LH, high FSH, low estradiol.
I wasted lots of time trying to figure that out. The low DHEA and other symptoms led me to adrenal fatigue, which I thought I had for awhile. Taking 50mg DHEA didn't help, and actually lowered my testosterone from 720 to 450 ng/dL. I tried all kinds of supplements for adrenal fatigue with little success. I began to wonder what would cause me to have adrenal fatigue, since I had a very relaxing, stress-free lifestyle.
I thought maybe my digestive problems were the source of stress, and maybe they were caused by food allergies? Maybe I had candida? Wasted all kinds of time trying different diets, although I did learn a couple valuable things, that I seem to be lactose intolerant and gluten sensitive.
I was now getting a little desperate because there was clearly something wrong with me, but it was all these vague and seemingly unrelated problems (ADD, brain fog, fatigue, digestive problems, low libido, hematological abnormalities, hormonal abnormalities). I was still able to come up with nothing better than adrenal fatigue to explain it, and even then, still didn't know why I would have adrenal fatigue. There had to be a root cause, something that could explain everything. It continued to elude me.
I saw the endocrinologist again when my TSH came up high (5.2), and free t3 and t4 were normal but at the low end of the range. I started on thyroid hormone and achieved optimal levels of free t3 and free t4. It improved my fatigue somewhat and lowered my cholesterol into from borderline high LDL to optimal HDL and LDL values. However, the rest of my symptoms continued to plague me and I was again left wondering what was causing the mild hypothyroidism (and everything else).
The turning point came when I tried Low Dose Naltrexone to see if it would help my fatigue and digestive troubles. Instead of helping, all hell broke loose. I began to have chest pain, palpitations, numbness and tingling in my extremities, arms and legs, muscles twitching all over, eyelids twitching, neck stiffness, stiffness in my right calf, "buzzing" nerve sensation all along the back of my right leg, weakness in my right leg, pain in specific areas of head, sensation of pressure in head, severe anxiety, severe brain fog, balance problems (lost balance if I closed my eyes or room was dark). There's probably more, so many things happened its difficult to recall.
Needless to say, I freaked the hell out -- that was probably the scariest time of my life. I thought I had multiple sclerosis or something based on the neurological symptoms and I was thinking things like, I wonder if Olga is going to leave me if I end up in a wheelchair. I went to my primary care physician, he ran an EKG which was normal, assured me that I did not have a heart attack (I had an episode of severe chest pain with pain radiating into my left arm and up into my neck). He thought it was some kind of side effect of naltrexone, which it most assuredly was not. I suspected there might be some autoimmune problem that the LDN aggravated by boosting my immune system, so I had him run some labs, and I did have positive ANA antibodies at a low titer, suggesting the beginnings of Lupus.
I went home and started thinking and researching. LDN powerfully boosts the immune system, so it had to be something immune related. I was unwilling to accept an autoimmune condition. It was obvious to me that the entire class of autoimmune diseases were BS even as I first started learning about them, that they were simply labeling groups of signs and symptoms without correctly identifying or understanding the true underlying pathology. I came back to my long-standing hematological abnormalities -- what could cause a low WBC and low platelets? My bone marrow was normal, so what was happening to the blood cells? They must be getting destroyed peripherally. Why? A chronic infection seemed to be the most likely explanation. Now I was getting somewhere.
What chronic infections could cause this diverse array of symptoms, both my long-standing symptoms since childhood and these new ones that appeared after trying LDN? Lyme Disease was the most likely suspect, especially given my location in Connecticut, the epicenter of the disease. I went to see a Lyme specialist in the area, had the western blot performed, and came up both IgM and IgG positive. I also had the CD-57 panel performed, which measures the number of a subset of natural killer cells whose role it is to attack pathogens with lipopolysaccharide antigens (the type featured by borrelia burgdorferi). Mine was low at 36 in a range of 60-360, which indicates long-standing infection (typically CD-57 count does not drop until after the first year of infection).
So that was how I discovered I had Lyme Disease. I was very fortunate to try LDN and provoke some of the more classic Lyme symptoms to begin, otherwise I might not have figured it out for much longer. For most of my life, I was just vaguely ill with the kind of typical complaints people come to ImmInst with all the time and try to fix with nootropics or other supplements. I played that game for years.
I've been on mickey mouse antibiotics for about six months, but even monotherapy with tetracycline has improved my condition quite a bit. Most of my newer, post-LDN symptoms are under control and very mild now. I am seeing a new and much more aggressive doctor and am about to start a four or five drug antibiotic cocktail that I expect to deliver the knockout punch. And, I am doing everything that could possibly be remotely helpful to stack the odds in my favor.
Its alot easier once you actually know what's wrong with you.
Changes to regimen (updated on first page):
RemovedNa-RALA - don't want to interfere with adaptation provoked by alternate day fasting / light CR
Neptune Krill Oil - too expensive, started to question advantages over regular fish oil, wanted a bit more DHA / EPA
Flaxseed Oil - I get enough ALA in my diet now
Now Curcumin - Not taking this daily anymore, replaced by nano-curcumin on fasting days
AOR Ortho Adapt - now I'm leaning toward adrenal fatigue not existing anymore. I'm fickle like that.
ChangedOlive Leaf Extract - replaced morning and lunch 250mg capsules with 500mg capsules. Will increase dinner dose to 500mg after adjustment period (OLE is super potent and difficult for me to tolerate)
Diet - started alternate day fasting and protein cycling w/ mild CR
AddedNatural Factors Rx-Omega3 Fish Oil: 200mg DHA 400mg EPA, 1 gelcap 2x daily
Jarrow Saccharomyces Boulardii: 250mg w/ breakfast
AOR Curecumin (nano-curcumin dissolved in sesame oil): 750mg 2x during fasting period on fasting days (approximately lunch and dinner times)
RevGenetics Nitro 250: 250mg micronized resveratrol in tween 80 2x during fasting period on fasting days (approximately lunch and dinner times)
Bromelain: 600GDU 3x daily with tetracycline
Serrapeptase: 20,000iu 3x daily with tetracycline
Nattokinase: 2000 FU at bedtime
The enzymes definitely potentiate the tetracycline. I could only tolerate bromelain once a day initially, then twice, then three times, then serrapeptase, and finally added nattokinase. I had blood drawn today, wound clotted normally.